Euripides, the rationalist: A study in the history of art and religion

A.W. Verrall was a crucial figure in the emergence of literary criticism as distinct from, but based in, traditional classical philology. In this book (first published in 1895) he presents a resolutely rationalist Euripides, whose uses of divine intervention are seen as deeply ironic: "[Euripides'] stories assume that "the gods" do not exist; and unless we are alive to this, unless we keep it always before us, the best of Euripides, the essence of Euripides, must be sealed up from us.' (Verrall's italics) He noted that, while the ancients were unanimous in regarding Euripides as a dramatic artist of the first rank, modern scholarship had resorted either to distaste for his values and innovative dramatic methods, or to apologetic excuse for them - which misses the point. Verrall's contentious book proved influential in explaining features of Euripidean dramatic technique - especially in his 'problem plays' - that have been basic to interpretation ever since. In a distinctly 'modern' way his readings are continually sensitive to the tensions and challenges inherent in the relationship between the play in performance and its audience. For this re-issue Peter Burian has written a new introduction, placing Verrall's work in its context, assessing its major influence on subsequent criticism, and adding a select bibliography. A.W. Verrall was fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Cambridge's first Professor of English Literature. He published important editions of plays by Aeschylus and Euripides, as well as literary critical essays on them, and on Horace and Dryden. Peter Burian is Professor of Classics in Duke University, North Carolina and has written extensively on Greek tragedy, especially Euripides.